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$3 million in city cash and an emphasis on public space will transform Grand Avenue's 'unremarkable' front door

As the former Grand Avenue mall is converted to a food hall, offices and apartments, work also begins soon on making its main entrance more welcoming — a project being financed with $3 million in city cash.

And that carries important ramifications for Milwaukee, said project architect Chris Socha.

Chris Socha(Photo: Tom Daykin / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

"We're in competition with every city our size or larger for talent," he said. "People want to be in a city that has life."

The redeveloping former mall, now known as The Avenue, will be one of those places, he said.

But it won't truly work without a new front door, said Socha, of TKWA Urban Lab.

The Avenue's new entrance, with its revamped public plaza, will be the main sign to passers-by of the transformed interior, Socha said.

That will help draw customers to the food hall, known as 3rd Street Market Hall, he said.

The Avenue’s developers in December announced plans to create 3rd Street Market Hall on the former mall's first floor, at 275 W. Wisconsin Ave.

They also said Graef USA, an engineering, planning and design firm, will move its headquarters to the third floor — anchoring office space on the upper levels.

Renovations of that building started recently and will be done around the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the 52-unit Plankinton Clover apartments are opening on the second floor of The Avenue's historic Plankinton Arcade, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave.

The outdoor plaza, along with new elevators and new stairway to maintain public access within The Avenue, would receive $9 million in city funds under a proposal being reviewed in April by the Common Council.

Those funds would be paid by new property tax revenue from the food hall, offices and apartments.

Around $3 million would be used for the public plaza, according to the Department of City Development.

Work on the plaza, and the new main entrance, is expected to begin by late May, Socha said.

The new entrance to the former Grand Avenue mall, now known as The Avenue, will replace the glass vestibule with upper level patios and an expanded public plaza.(Photo: TKWA Urban Lab)

Some of that work will involve restoring the main entrance to a form similar to what existed when the Grand Avenue opened in 1982.

That original entrance had a gentle, graceful upward sweep from West Wisconsin Avenue to the mall's doors, Socha said.

But that changed — not for the better — around 2001, he said.

A large glass vestibule was added, along with both steps and a ramp rising from the street to the new entrance.

The result, Socha said, was "unremarkable."

"We're trying to get back to the more gracious invitation," he said.

The vestibule will be removed, along with part of the former Applebee's restaurant space just east of the main entrance.

That will create a wider area for the public plaza.

Also, there will be a return to the more gradual incline from the street.

The plaza will be next to an outdoor beer garden that will be part of the food hall. And, upper-level outdoor patios will be improved and added above the street-level entry.

Along with drawing food hall patrons inside, those changes will encourage people to sit and linger at the plaza, Socha said.

"It's going to have more of a people-watching quality to it," he said.

Upper-level patios will be private amenities for The Avenue's future office workers and a beer garden next to the public plaza will be reserved for food hall patrons.(Photo: TKWA Urban Lab)

Even the upper-level patios, which will be private amenities for The Avenue's future office workers, will serve a public purpose, he said.

"This is an attempt to bring the life of the building out on to the street," Socha said. "We want people to see and be seen from a new vantage point."

That's important to the civic life of Milwaukee — especially given The Avenue's location on one of the city's most important streets.

Wisconsin Avenue "kind of belongs to everybody," he said.

Similarly, the beer garden next to the public plaza will be reserved for food hall patrons.

"But it will really be a contributor to the life of the plaza itself," Socha said.

The biggest change involves removing the glass vestibule.

The vestibule exists for people who are either entering or leaving the building, he said. It's not space for just hanging out.

That reflects a mindset from roughly 20 years ago, Socha said, when downtown malls were still using suburban mall architectural touches. The revamped entry way was part of several Grand Avenue renovations that occurred from 2001 through 2003.

"They probably were looking for something splashier back then," he said.

That didn't reflect an appreciation for the property's location in the heart of downtown.

"It was still thought of as a traditional mall," Socha said.

"It's taken decades for people to realize that cities matter, and that places within cities matter.

"Even five years ago this could have been a hard sell as to why things like this matter," he said.

Now, with a renewed appreciation for downtown and other urban neighborhoods, Socha is working on a project that is helping redefine Milwaukee.